51% Of The State’s Residents Feel Louisiana Is Headed In The Wrong Direction

How do you feel about the direction our state is going? More than half of Louisiana residents surveyed feel that our state is not going the way we want it to go. Despite that majority of negativity, there is a positive note to the recently published survey.

Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first. 51% of Louisiana residents that took part in a University of New Orleans Survey Research Center Poll said they felt pessimistic about the direction of our state. 35% of the 600 likely voters surveyed said they felt the state was headed in the right direction. Oddly enough, that's the good news. That positive feeling is up 15% from a similar survey done last year.

That was the end of the Bobby Jindal era and a lot of people were extremely upset with him and his policies, were ready to see him go and were just in a general funk as a result.

Pollster Ed Chevernak made those comments to the Louisiana Radio Network. He went on to say that when you break the survey down by political party, it's the Republicans that are the most pessimistic. The surveyed showed that 64% of respondents that considered themselves to be Republican were unhappy about the state's direction. 32% of Democrats said they held the same pessimistic view.

African Americans and Democrats tend to think things are going well, that’s to be expected when you have a Democratic governor. Whereas, white likely voters and Republicans don’t think things are going well.

Meanwhile, Governor Edwards' appeal is very strong across the state. 56% of those responding to the survey felt the Governor was indeed leading the state in a positive direction. Chevernak seems to believe the way the Governor handled the recent flooding and the police shootings in Baton Rouge did a lot to bolster his rating among the constituency.